Google
the word “Filipina” and
this is what you’ll get: 5.36 million entries,
the top results of which include “Filipina
Dating, Filipina Singles, Filipina Brides,” “Filipina
+ Asian Brides Personals,” “Filipina
Penpals and Asian Lady Dating FREE,” “Filipinas
for Love, Marriage, Romance.” |
|
Pinoy
expatriates and cyber denizens are the ones who feel
first hand the
sting of negative
impressions on Filipinas. Pinoys in the Philippines
may collectively raise a howl when a summation of negative
views of Filipinas is demonstrated in, say, an inaccurate
dictionary entry. But Pinoys in the Philippines may
not always see their negative image at home. If they
don’t correspond with the world, they may even
live blissfully unaware that his or her nationality
is being maligned repeatedly elsewhere.
“
I tire of Filipina mail-order bride jokes. I’ve
heard those jokes all my life while growing up here
in Canada,” says a Filipina with a blog called
fruityoaty. Along with a growing number of Pinoy bloggers,
she welcomed this year’s campaign of the Digital
Filipino Club to overhaul the Pinay image online.
Organized by Janette Toral, a Filipina professional
who provides consulting and training on search engine
optimization, blogging, Internet marketing, e-commerce,
software process improvement, among others, the “Filipina
Writing Project” launched last August to “share
in the ongoing efforts to bring relevant results to
search engine and topple those that exploit the Filipinas.”
The Filipina Writing Project is a “writing contest” that
will “receive” entries from August to November. “Contestants” can
come from any blog or website in the world with an
entry or a blogpost with Filipina as theme. The writer
can take his or her entry to any direction or style,
using English, Taglish or Filipino.
The idea is to flood the Internet with stories of Pinays
that go beyond the usual derogation and have search
engines like Google and Yahoo pick them up and rank
them among the top results.
Bloggers will then meet in the Philippines come end-November
for an early Christmas party where winners will be
chosen. Three entries will be chosen randomly in a
raffle, another three picked for being the most-liked
by the Digital Filipino Club members, one entry for
getting the most nods out of the sponsors, and one
to three entries that will top the Google, Yahoo and
MSN searches. The winners will receive $100 each.
Efforts on Filipina image makeover
As Janette Toral stressed in her open invitation
to the writing project, they are simply casting
their lot in ongoing efforts to change the Filipina
image. Among the sites involved in the campaign
are: FilipinaImages.com (the portal set up for
this campaign alone), RadiantView.com (Lorna Dietz),
Sexy Mom (Dine Racoma) and AboutMyRecovery.com
(Noemi Dado).
In 2002, the US-based Filipina Women Network
(FWN) embarked on a national campaign to reshape
the Filipina
image. They said that the word “Filipinas” has
received such a bum rep online – with the majority
linking Pinays to Filipina dating sites, matchmaking, “bar” and “sexy” girls
and personal ads – sites that have already
defined the Filipina woman at almost “cultural
icon” level.
As for Toral’s writing project, seven weeks
into the 16-week project, she tells One Philippines: “I
am very happy with the entries as they reflect
a lot of thought about the Filipina.”
She says writing projects like this normally have
a strong start, dwindle in the middle and finish
strong. In the end, she hopes to receive up to
100 entries and see them attain ranking and visibility
in search engines. “If almost all entries
will appear in the first 10 pages of search engine
results,
that will be great.”
What the entries say, so far
At the time of our interview, the number of responses
was less than overwhelming, but the quality of
the entries more than made up for the lack in
numbers. The submissions delineated traits,
capabilities
and exploits unique to Pinays. As expected, a
few entries made much of the idea that Filipinas
are “not
just” what the majority of “exploitative” sites
on the Internet insinuate, which is either “exotic
girls” or house help.
Still, a few reflect on how many are forced to
seek employment abroad. Filipinas as OFWs are
saluted for their “katapangan, kasipagan, kabaitan,” no
matter how seemingly menial their jobs.
One gave new meaning to the initials “DH.” While
it’s the abbreviation for “domestic helper,” someone
wrote that because of the hardships Filipinas had
to endure to feed their loved ones back home, DHs
should be the real epitome of “die hard.”
Bloggers also opened discussions on many capabilities
and exploits. Abroad, Filipinas excel in their
careers, showing they have what it takes. One blogger
drew
a list of pioneering Filipinas and promised to
update it. Another praised the Filipinas’ resourcefulness
at engaging in micro-businesses to make ends meet
and called them “natural entrepreneurs.”
Aileen Apolo said she was only echoing other peoples’ praises
for the Filipina when she said the Pinay puts family
first, is caring, funny, matiyaga, resilient and
beautiful.
Saying their piece about Pinays in raw English,
Filipino and a mixture of both (one even uploaded
the two
70’s Filipino songs and one said his piece
in poetry), most came across as simple and honest.
Some sounded more madrama, but the topic does beg
a touch of histrionics. For OFWs especially, being
Filipina means sacrifices and as blogger Elay asked, “Gaano
kalamig ang Pasko sa mga OFW?”
Two raised the horror of prostituting and trafficking
Filipinas. This also brings us to the heart of
why there’s this unsavory image of the Filipina,
in the first place. The worsening poverty and joblessness
in the Philippines are forcing millions of Filipinas,
wittingly or unwittingly, to jobs that blanket
Filipinas under a negative image.
Would changing the situation that gives rise to this
negativity be as simple as toppling the unsavory
hits on the Filipina on the Internet? |
